March 19, 2024
Responsive Reading: (adapted from Psalm 104:24-34, 35b NJB)
Guide: How countless are your works, Yahweh, all of them made so wisely! The earth is full of your creatures.
Many: Then there is the sea, with its vast expanses teeming with countless creatures, creatures both great and small. They all depend on you to feed them when they need it.
Guide: You provide the food they gather, your open hand gives them their fill. Turn back your face and they panic; take back their breath and they die and revert to dust.
Many: Send out your breath and life begins; you renew the face of the earth. Glory to Yahweh forever! We shall sing to Yahweh all our life, make music for our God as long as we live.
Guide: May our musings be pleasing to God.
All: For Yahweh gives us joy. Bless Yahweh, my soul.
Hymns:
VT #57 Holy Spirit, Come with Power
VT #50 Spirit, Working in Creation
VT #828 There’s a Wild Hope in the Wind
VT #373 As the Wind Song through the Trees
Scripture: Acts 2:1-17
May 12, 2024
A Litany for Mother’s Day:
Leader: Mothers come in many different forms, and today we celebrate them all!
People: Thank God for mothers!
Leader: Everyone here is wither a son or a daughter.
People: Thank God for mother!
Leader: For those women who have joined God in Heaven and whom we miss dearly here on earth.
People: Thank God for the mothers of the past.
Leader: For every woman who is working day and night to raise her children right now.
People: Thank God for the mothers of today.
Leader: For the women outside our homes who counseled and taught us.
People: Thank God for the mothers of spirit.
Leader: For the women who mothered children through adoption and foster care.
People: Thank God for the mothers with hearts so big.
All: Thank you, Lord, for the women who have influenced our lives in so many ways. We pray that we will honor them in everything we do. Amen.
Hymns:
VT #617 When Peace Like a River
VT #212 Comfort Comfort O My People
VT #412 My Soul Cries Out
Scriptures:
Holy Q’ran 4:135
O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So, follow not personal inclination, lest you not be just. And if you distort your testimony or refuse to give it, then indeed Allah is ever acquainted with what you do.
Luke 18:6-8 (The Inclusive Bible)
Even the unjust judge ultimately gave protection to the widow who kept appealing. Won’t God then do justice to the chosen who keep calling out day and night? Will God delay? I tell you God will give them swift justice!
May 4, 2024
This is an outdoor service. There will be no recording.
Responsive Reading: (adapted from Psalm 98 NJB)
Guide: Sing a new song to Yahweh, who has performed wonders, with saving power in Yahweh’s right hand and in Yahweh’s holy arm.
Many: Yahweh has made know saving power, revealed saving justice for the nations to see, mindful of faithful love and constancy to the people.
Guide: The whole wide world has seen the saving power of our God. Acclaim Yahweh, all the earth, burst into shouts of joy and sing!
Many: Play to Yahweh on the harp, to the sound of instruments; to the sound of trumpet and horn, acclaim the presence of the King.
Guide: Let the sea thunder, and all that it holds, the world and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands,
All: and the mountains shout for joy together. Yahweh will judge the world with saving justice and the nations with fairness.
Hymns:
VT #81 All Creatures, Worship God Most High
VT #636 Spirit, Open My Heart
Scriptures: John 15:9-17
April 28, 2024
Responsive Reading: (adapted from Psalm 22)
Guide: From you comes our praise in the great congregation; our vows we will pay before those who fear the Lord.
Many: The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever!
Guide: All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before the Lord.
Many: For dominion belongs to the Lord, and the Lord rules over the nations. To the Lord indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
Guide: before the Lord shall bow all who go down to the dust, and we shall live for the Lord.
All: Posterity will serve the Lord; future generations will be told about the Lord and proclaim deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that the Lord has done it.
Hymns:
VT #30 Jesus Calls Us
VT #7 Come, Let Us All Unite to Sing
VT #158 Gott ist die Liebe (I Know God Loves Me)
STJ #108 Give Thanks for Life
Scriptures: Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8
April 21, 2024
Call to Worship (based on Psalm 23)
One: We rejoice in the One who leads us beside still waters,
All: and gives us refreshment of soul.
One: Christ our Shepherd shows us the way we should go,
All: so that the name of God will be glorified.
One: Though all manner of evil befall us, we will not be afraid,
All: for the Great Shepherd of our souls is with us.
One: We are never away from the love and mercy of the Lord,
All: and we shall be with him for ever and ever. Amen!
Hymns:
VT #30 Jesus Calls Us
VT #47 God of Our Strength
VT #601 Lead Me Guide Me
VT #847 You Shall Go Out With Joy
Scriptures: Acts 4:5-12, Matthew 5: 38-48
April 14, 2024
Responsive Reading: (adapted from Psalm 4)
Guide: When we call, answer us, God, upholder of our right. You gave us room when we were in distress; take pity on us and hear our prayer.
Many: Children of humankind, how long will you be heavy of heart, why love what is vain and chase after illusions?
Guide: Realize that Yahweh performs wonders for the faithful, Yahweh listens when we call.
Many: When you are disturbed, do not sin; speak in your hearts, and on your beds keep silence. Put your trust in the Lord.
Guide: There are many who say, “O that we might see some good! Let the beauty of your face be seen on us, O Lord!
All: You have put gladness in our hearts, more than when the grain and wine abound. We will sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make us rest secure.
Hymns:
VT #837 Lead Me Forth
VT #549 Be Thou My Vision
VT #644 Healer of Our Every Ill
VT #565 Christ Is Alive, and Goes Before Us
Scriptures: Acts 3:12-19, 1 John 3:1-7, Luke 24:36b-48
April 7, 2024
Responsive Reading: (adapted Psalm 116:1-9 NJB)
Guide: We are filled with love when Yahweh listens to the sound of our prayer, when Yahweh bends down to hear us, as we call.
Many: The bonds of death were all round us, the snares of Sheol held us fast; distress and anguish held us in their grip, we called on the name of Yahweh.
Guide: Deliver us, Yahweh, we beg you.
Many: Yahweh is merciful and upright, our God is tenderness. Yahweh looks after the simple, when we were brought low Yahweh gave us strength.
Guide: Our hearts be at peace once again, for Yahweh has treated us generously. Yahweh has rescued us from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from stumbling.
All: We shall live our life in the presence of Yahweh, in the land of the living.
Hymns:
VT #588 We Walk by Faith
VT #737 Breathe on Me, Breath of God
VT #827 Move in Our Midst
HWB #593 O Power of Love
Scriptures: Ecclesiastes 3:9-11, John 20:19-31
March 31, 2024 (Easter)
Responsive Reading: (adapted from Psalm 118)
Guide: O give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good; the Lord’s steadfast love endures forever!
Many: The Lord is our strength and our might; the Lord has become our salvation.
Guide: Open to us the gates of saving justice, that we may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
Many: We thank you that you have answered us and have become our saving justice. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
Guide: This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
All: This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Prayer of Rejoicing:
Guide: Risen Jesus, you make all things new.
Many: You call us by name to come to you.
Guide: You come teaching peace and forgiveness.
Many: You prepare a feast for us and wipe away all tears
All: You bring the way to lasting life. We rejoice in your saving justice, Lord of all!
Unison reading: As we break this bread, we receive Christ's life in all our diversity, in all our individuality, as we share this loaf and the cup we are one community.
Hymns:
STS #89 Christ is Alive
VT #340 Lift Your Glad Voices
VT #355 Thine is the Glory
Video: The Easter Song (Second Chapter of Acts)
Scripture: Isaiah 25:6-9, John 20:1-18, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
March 24, 2024
Responsive Reading: (adapted from Psalm 118)
Guide: O give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good; the Lord’s steadfast love endures forever!
Many: Open to us the gates of your good way, that we may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
Guide: This is the gate of the Lord; through the gift of God we enter through it.
Many: We thank you that you have answered us and have become our salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Guide: This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
Many: This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
All: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.
Prayer of Confession:
Guide: When we get caught up in embracing and enabling the powers of this world,
Many: forgive us.
Guide: When we lose sight of the humble donkey and put our confidence in the horses of war
Many: remind us of this Palm Sunday.
Guide: When we get pulled into the narrative of fear,
All: you show us and teach us the way of peace for the time of now, and toward the “not yet.”
Hymns:
VT #62 God is Here among Us
VT #836 Hey ney yana (I Walk in Beauty)
VT #315 All Glory, Laud, and Honor
VT #306 I Want Jesus to Walk with Me
VT #835 Go Now in Peace
Scriptures: Isaiah 50:4-9a, Mark 15:1-32, Philippians 2:5-11
March 17, 2024
Call to Worship (based on Jeremiah 31:31–34; John 12:20–33)
One: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. No longer will they teach their neighbors, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord!’ because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.”
Many: This new covenant is being offered to us.
One: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
Many: Death must come before resurrection. A seed fallen to the soil and broken open can become life for many.
All: This new covenant is being offered to us: to lay down our life and follow.
One: The life-giving ways of God placed within our minds and written on our hearts,where we are forgiven and our sins remembered no more, where we are God’s people and God is our God.
Hymns:
VT #23 Come Walk With Us
VT #131 Praise I will Praise you Lord
Video: Sow Mercy
Scriptures: John 12:24-26
March 10, 2024
Responsive Reading: (adapted from Psalm 107)
Guide: O give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good, for the Lord’s steadfast love goes on forever.
Many: Let the restored of the Lord say so, those the Lord redeemed from trouble and gathered from all the directions of the earth.
Guide: Some had been sick from their unwise ways, disorientation and suffering followed them.
Many: Then they cried to the Lord in their struggle, and God rescued them from their distress.
Guide: God’s presence is a reconciling and healing presence.
Many: Let us thank the Lord for the Lord’s unending love, the awe inspiring activities toward humankind.
All: Let us tell of the Lord’s deeds with songs of joy.
Prayer of Confession:
Guide: Merciful God, we sometimes forget that you are the source of goodness and wisdom.
Many: Forgive us when our memories are short.
Guide: Remind us of your merciful presence:
Many: when we wander away from you.
Guide: Loving God, imbed in us your overflowing love
Many: that can shape us in your wisdom and goodness.
All: Merciful God, we come seeking new life in you.
Hymns:
VT #62 God is Here among Us
VT #156 There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
VT #705 For the Healing of the Nations
VT #162 The Love of God
Scriptures: Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-21, Ephesians 2:1-10
March 3, 2024
Responsive Reading: (adapted from Psalm 19)
Guide: The heavens are telling the glory of God, and God’s artistry is on exhibit across the horizon.
Many: Each day expresses itself, and each night teaches us. There are no words that you can hear from them;
Guide: yet their voice goes out through all the earth. Their unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
Many: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple;
Guide: The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy.
Many: The ordinances of the Lord are true and trustworthy altogether.
Guide: More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
All: sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Prayer of Confession:
Guide: We often miss the beauty in your work, God.
Many: Draw us out of our distracted hearts.
Guide: When we put our trust in other things,
Many: remind us of the truth of your love and care.
All: Help us to know your joy for us.
Guide: May the meditations of our hearts, and the living of our days
Many: be pleasing on your sight.
All: our Rock and our Redeemer.
Hymns:
VT #197 God’s Glory Fills the Heavens
VT #436 How Great Thou Art
STS #55 Love the Lord Your God
VT #716 God of Grace and God of Glory
Scriptures: Exodus 20:1-17, John 2:13-22, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25